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Out of all of them, when it comes to train manufacturing, Bombardier has the strongest presence in the UK, with around 2,500 staff at Derby.

It’s rival bidders are all overseas firms, who are looking to establish a foothold in Britain.

Yes, you could say Bombardier is a foreign firm as it is Canadian-owned. But it has already firmly established itself here in Derby, supporting thousands of direct jobs and many more in the supply chain.

If Bombardier wins HS2 then much of the work would be done here in the UK - and more to the point, in Derby. Will the rival bidders be able and, more to the point, be willing to do the same?

2. BOMBARDIER’S DERBY SITE HAS THE CAPACITY

Bombardier workers have recently celebrated a glut of contract wins - but the Derby site has room for more

After a glut of recent contract wins, some would ask whether Bombardier actually needs more work? The answer to that would be ‘yes, it does’.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were taking to the streets of Derby campaigning to save the factory after the company missed out on the Thameslink contract back in 2011.

Thanks to those efforts, a crisis was averted and Bombardier and Derby are now reaping the rewards.

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Since 2014, Litchurch Lane has been on quite a roll. The company has won several massive deals - Elizabeth Line (formerly Crossrail), London Overground, Greater Anglia, South West Trains and most recently West Midlands Trains.

All of these deals will safeguard jobs and keep Litchurch Lane busy until the early 2020s. But Bombardier is trying to fill its order book beyond that.

Litchurch Lane is a massive site, which has the capacity to take on even more work. Winning the HS2 deal would see the factory remain busy for much of the next decade.

3. EVERYTHING WOULD BE DONE IN THE UK

Bombardier's Aventra - designed, developed and built in Derby

When compared to its rival bidders, Bombardier’s offer in Britain is pretty unique. It not only builds trains right here in the UK, it designs, develops and maintains them.

While shop floor workers at the Litchurch Lane factory put the trains together, in offices on the same site there are the boffins who design them.

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One of their crowning glories is the Aventra - the train that has helped Bombardier attract so many orders in recent years.

It is a train designed right here in Derby. It has been developed here and it is built and tested here. The same could be done for the HS2 fleet. Everything could be provided under one roof, so to speak.

4. A TRACK RECORD FOR DELIVERY AND QUALITY

Staff at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane site celebrate completing its largest ever rolling stock order for London Underground

The workforce at Bombardier’s Litchurch Lane site have a well-earned reputation for delivering quality trains on time and on budget.

It is this track record that has helped the firm land a number of major projects. Delivering the trains on time will be absolutely crucial to the HS2 project as a whole - and the firm’s track record for delivery will surely be one of the elements that those examining each bid will look at.